language development

what are the different techniques that researchers use to study language for babies in utero, infants, and toddlers?

observation: watch the children for behaviors, gestures, facial expressions, sounds, and interactions to understand how they communication which is scripting the childrens language.

preferential-looking task: studying how infants respond when adult stops interacting with them.

infant-directed speech: study how adults naturally speak to babies with tone and way they communicate.

study gestures and nonverbal communication: examine for smiling, pointing, reaching, showing, and symbolic gestures.

study responses to sounds before birth: study how fetuses respond to sound.

key terms

oral language

using spoken words to listen, share ideas, and communicate feelings.

Receptive language

Paying attention to communication that is heard or visually represented. Ex: listening and reading

Productive language

developing an adequate vocabulary and primary language structure to communicate needs/ideas. Ex: speaking/writing

Attuned caregiving

supports language development. Ex: attempt to interpret and respond to an infant’s face/vocal cues, observe closely, gentle touching for building relationships, high pitched and engaging voice.

phonetics

how are spelling and sounds related. ex. phonemes and IPA

phonemes: the smallest unit of sound. ex: /p/, /b/

phonology

the study of how sounds are organized and used in language. ex. comparison of the sounds of the 2 p sounds in pop-up

infant directed speech

comes from naturally to parents and universally perferred by babies. ex: sing-song speech, peekaboo, i see you.

perceptual narrowing

Differentiate sounds in words. ex: lake/rake sound the same

preferential looking task

used to study a variety of skills, including speech processing skills. ex: you know the word but how do you access that knowledge

syntactic

growth in children was significantly related to porportion of complex sentences in teachers speech. ex: the student completed the assignment

types of nonverbal communication

gestures

sign

sound

behaviorism

key beliefs: language development is a process of modeling, children simply simply imitate the speech of others

goal: reinforcement aims to increase behavior, punishment aims to decrease it.

positive vs negative reinforcement: poritive means adding a stimuli (not necessarily good), negative means taking it away (not necessarily bad)

Skinner

innatist

key beliefs: children learning a second language (1-2) after ouberty are less likely to sound like a native speaker in their 1-2.

feral children: isolated until after puberty, never produced complex language, deaf nicaragum children whose parents discouraged sign language and addressed them verbally, geine

limitations: chomsky’s theories lack specificity and is difficult to test, language development, especially vocabulary development, continues for many years not only during the sensitive period, ignores social-cultural context of language development.

social interactionist theory

vygotsky: interaction with adults plays on important part in childrens language development, language development as a conversational duet between parent and child.

evidence against the social interaction theory: some children learn language even without much interaction, different cultures value adult/child interaction differently…but they all learn language.

constructivist

based on the theories of piaget and vygotsky, given the right environment, children are able to experiment and discover new information on their own, learning occurs when we adapt to new information

piagets perspective of cognitive development: adaptation

when we encounter new information that does not fit with our previous schemes, what can we do.

2 options: absorb new information (assimilation), incorporating information into existing scheme, change the existing schemes (accomodation), change or add to your existing scheme for a better match

receptive oral language milestones

fetuses respond to sound at 26-28 weeks

infancy: 3-12 months: infants improve in their use of gestures to communicate

newborns: the human auditory system is relatively well developed at birth, turn their head toward sound at 3 days, prefer noises and human voices to pure tone

2-4 months: can detect changes in tempo

4-6 months: prefers music over white noise

6-7 months: detect change in rhythm at 5 or 6 years old

9-12 months: social gestures (waving bye bye, nodding yes or no)

12-18 months: symbolic gestures representing some object or action

productive oral language milestones

newborns/infants: crying, typically less than 10% of time, like sleeping it is an indicator of healthy central nervous system

phonological awareness and phonemic awareness milestones

Manipulate sounds

how american english sounds are formed

Vocal features of American English consonants: place of articulation (where in the mouth or vocal tract the sound is produced). bilabial: [p], [b], [m], [w]. labiodental: [f], [v]. interdental: [θ], [ð], th, thy. alveolar: [t], [d], [s], [z], [n]. post aveolar: [ʃ]: sh [ʒ]: su, [tʃ]: ch, [dʒ]: j. velar: [k], [g], [ŋg], [w]. glottal: [h], [ʔ]: uh-oh. Manner: how, stops/plosive: oral stop is air stopped in the oral cavity, [t]raising the velum to block air. Nasal stops: [n], [m]; air stopped in the nasal cavity, lowering the velum to block air. glottal stop: [?], closing the vocal cords. fricatives: forming a nearly complete constriction of the vocal tract, air escaping forms a hiss or friction, [f], [s], [ʃ]. affricatives: briefly stopping the airstream, then releasing it slightly, some friction produced, stop followed by a fricative. liquids

how american english sounds are formed

Voicing: voiced or voiceless. Voiceless: the glottis is open; voiced: the glottis is vibrating;g, you can place your fingers at the neck, and you can feel the vibration.

how american english sounds are formed

Manner: how, stops/plosive: oral stop is air stopped in the oral cavity, [t]raising the velum to block air. Nasal stops: [n], [m]; air stopped in the nasal cavity, lowering the velum to block air. glottal stop: [?], closing the vocal cords. fricatives: forming a nearly complete constriction of the vocal tract, air escaping forms a hiss or friction, [f], [s], [ʃ]. affricatives: briefly stopping the airstream, then releasing it slightly, some friction produced, stop followed by a fricative. liquids: constriction of the vocal tract but not complete, can sometimes act like vowels, [i], [r]. glides/approximates/flaps: glides: only a slight closure nearly a vowel, [w] and [u] are very similar, just more open lips in [u], [j]. flaps: a quick stop, [r].